Find the Nth Ugly Number in Java


A number whose prime factors are either 2, 3 or 5 is called an Ugly Number.  Some of the ugly numbers are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, etc.

We have a number N and the task is to find the Nth Ugly number in the sequence of Ugly numbers.

For Example:

Input-1:

N = 5

Output:

5

Explanation:

The 5th ugly number in the sequence of ugly numbers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15] is 5.

Input-2:

N = 7

Output:

8

Explanation:

The 7th ugly number in the sequence of ugly numbers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15] is 8.

Approach to Solve this Problem

A simple approach to solve this problem is to check if the given number is divisible by 2 or 3 or 5 and keep track of the sequence till the given number. Now find if the number satisfies all the condition of an ugly number, then return the number as the output.

  • Take input of a number N to find the Nth Ugly Number.
  • A Boolean function isUgly(int n) takes a number ‘n’ as the input and returns True if it is an ugly number, otherwise False.
  • An integer function findNthUgly(int n) takes ‘n’ number as the input and returns the nth ugly number as the output.

Example

Live Demo

public class UglyN {
   public static boolean isUglyNumber(int num) {
      boolean x = true;
      while (num != 1) {
         if (num % 5 == 0) {
            num /= 5;
         }
         else if (num % 3 == 0) {
            num /= 3;
         }
         // To check if number is divisible by 2 or not
         else if (num % 2 == 0) {
            num /= 2;
         }
         else {
            x = false;
            break;
         }
      }
      return x;
   }
   public static int nthUglyNumber(int n) {
      int i = 1;
      int count = 1;
      while (n > count) {
         i++;
         if (isUglyNumber(i)) {
            count++;
         }
      }
      return i;
   }
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      int number = 100;
      int no = nthUglyNumber(number);
      System.out.println("The Ugly no. at position " + number + " is " + no);
   }
}

Output

The Ugly no. at position 100 is 1536.

Updated on: 23-Feb-2021

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